A photo adapter offered by the Leica Company of Germany provides the possibility of connecting a miniature camera to a monocular. The monocular performs the task of a super telephoto lens for the camera. The adapter includes a complex seven lens optic. A T2 adapter with a corresponding bayonet is required in order to connect the camera to the photo adapter.
The Nikon Company of Japan also offers a camera adapter with which a camera is so connected to a monocular that photographs can be made with the camera. However, only Nikon cameras can be connected to the Nikon monocular by means of this adapter which means a limitation for the customer.
For a camera connected to the monocular, it is also disadvantageous that the user can only see the image made available by the monocular through the viewfinder of the camera. Once the camera is mounted to the monocular, several manipulations are required so that the user can again look through the monocular and therefore obtain a complete impression of the image.
Furthermore, a system is known from the Nikon Company, as also from the Vixen Company, wherein a CCD camera can be connected to a viewing monocular. A separate LCD monitor can be connected to the CCD camera by means of which the user can view the image recorded via the monocular. Furthermore, a video camera can be connected with a video cable.
German Patent 2,825,505 discloses connecting a binocular to a camera having a telephoto lens so that the viewing fields of the camera and the binocular with reference to angle orientation are coincident. A functional coupling between the binocular and the camera is not provided. The camera and the binocular are provided one next to the other so that the optic of the binocular and, in parallel, the optic of the camera each generate an image.
A combination of a camera and a binocular is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,445,766. The focal length of the telephoto lens of the camera is so selected that everything between 10 meters and infinity is imaged sharply.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,933,026 discloses the combination of a binocular and a camera. Here, the focusing devices of camera and binocular are so mechanically coupled to each other that, with a sharp adjustment of the binocular, the camera is also correspondingly focused.
A binocular is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,882,791 which is provided with an additional photo objective for recording images.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,330,401 discloses holding a camera behind one ocular of a binocular. The free ocular is then used by the user for viewing the image obtained with the binocular. This is, however, very uncomfortable for the user and one must accept unsharp images of the camera because of the high magnification of the binocular.